AMD X2-- reinstall windows XP and BIOS updates..

[killer8]

Will Windows XP have to be reinstalled in order to operate with two CPUs/dual core?

I seem to recall that Windows NT set itself up differently on dual processor boards than on single processor.

In addition... I haven't seen anything regarding BIOS updates for Socket 939 boards. In the case of my board, the MSI Neo2, there's nothing on the website or updates at MSI on this. I haven't heard of other boards getting BIOS updates for X2 compatibility either.

It's been stated that BIOS updates will be required for S939 boards to work with dual core. As the X2 will hit retail in the next week or two, one would think that the board makers would have attended to this matter by now.

 

[theMan]

i dont think so. i think it will be able to adjust. just like adding some new hardware.

 

[batmanuel]

Since the X2 processors use Intel's Hyperthreading flags in the CPUID to report the dual cores to Windows as two virtual processors (in order to allow backwards compatability for older single threaded apps and to allow both cores to be used in XP Home - which is only licensed for use on syetems with on phyisical processor), so upgrading to a dual core chip ought to be no more an issue for Windows XP than is flipping Hyperthreading on and on in the BIOS.

I figure you will have to make sure you upgrade the board's BIOS before you upgrade the chip, otherwise you could have issues POSTing.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

You will likely need to change the pc type to ACPI multi processor

 

[ryanv12]

Microsoft released some sort of patch adding dual core support. Go to their website and find that.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
You will likely need to change the pc type to ACPI multi processor

I didn't have to when I got my first 2.6 P4c from a 2.4b chip...It found it automatically upon the restart and loading ACPI multiprocessor....

I expect it will be for me, plop in and go....

 

[ND40oz]

It depends on which HAL was loaded when windows was originally installed. When windows installs in the 16-bit environment, it has to "guess" at which HAL it is going to use, then when you boot into Windows for the first time, it installs the correct HAL for your processor. The multi-processor acpi hal is compliant with a uni-processor system acpi system. If it was the one installed, then you should have no problems, if it wasn't, it may run with the uniprocessor hal (if it does, it also may have a few quirks) or it will give you a nice blue screen with a stop error of 0x000007.

We've done alot of testing with HAL switching at work with our images. Finally got it working correctly, so it is possible to switch the HAL after the fact, but it's easiest to do it on first install.

 

[killer8]

Originally posted by: batmanuel
Since the X2 processors use Intel's Hyperthreading flags in the CPUID to report the dual cores to Windows as two virtual processors (in order to allow backwards compatability for older single threaded apps and to allow both cores to be used in XP Home - which is only licensed for use on syetems with on phyisical processor), so upgrading to a dual core chip ought to be no more an issue for Windows XP than is flipping Hyperthreading on and on in the BIOS.

I figure you will have to make sure you upgrade the board's BIOS before you upgrade the chip, otherwise you could have issues POSTing.

The thing is, there's no info around about upgrading the board's BIOS for X2 chips yet. I guess we'll know soon, as chips should be shipping to customers in the next week or two.

edit: e.g., the last BIOS update for the K8N Neo2 4/12/2005 has no mention of X2 support.. nor any other previous updates.

 

[glugglug]

Make a copy of the line in BOOT.INI for your current startup OS (in case you screw up in editing).

Add the following flags to the end of the line for one of the 2 copies to make it use the multiproc kernel:

/kernel=ntkrnlmp.exe /hal=halmacpi.dll

The multi-proc kernel will work while you have a single CPU BTW, it just adds a negligible performance penalty as the code used for thread synchronization objects and such has to be more complicated. You can use the single-proc kernel with a dual-proc system but it won't see the 2nd CPU.

 

[RichUK]

good info guys, with regards to the different kernal/HAL used with the dual procs, i didnt realise but it makes sense..